Of The Soul
by Jamuss
Summary: The fight atop Teppelin spins down, but before the finishing blow is dealt, something different happens. An old creation of The Spiral King's is activated, and all atop the tower are thrust over a thousand years into the past. In this familiar place, Lordgenome plots to ensure a brighter future for man, with new and old enemies there to hinder the path he shall send them all down.


The boy did more than throw some weight around, handling himself like a true Man of the Spiral, and like a worrier he roared and screamed with the fires of his soul blazing. My heart raced and my fists bled, For the first time in a thousand years I'd finally traded blows with someone my equal, every thrown hand of ours could ream any lesser man to paste, and these blows where dealt ceaselessly. This boy was great, powerful, with grit and heart equal to some of the greatest Spiral Worriers of my time, I was glad to know he would be remembered, it was a rare thing for our lot, he'd now exist until the end of time as the man who rose up against me, as the powerful human worrier who matched The Spiral King!

Perhaps this tale would teach my Beastmen of respect, or at least some modicum of it, Thymilph had been one of the few who'd at least recognize some of mans stifled abilities. This shall be the tale to extend such wisdom to all my creations, the tale of Team Gurren and their mighty leader Shimon, it shall be the tale to tell of all man's greatness, tell of the innate danger we as a species pose to the rest of the universe, tell of the chaos and all-encompassing destruction we could unleash upon the cosmos. To elucidate what a batsman's duty truly was, not as the cullers of cattle, but as defenders of the universe.

But another second more, an expected moment in any conflict, a blow fell limp, a faded shadow of any of the bone splintering fists that had come before. All things came to their end, and it was simply a wonder a child could keep up with me for as long as he did. The boy continued to slow, his spirit I knew could blaze far brighter than what it was allowed, but just as I was in the body of an old man, the body of a child stifled him much the same, he would never reach his prime. With this stifling of the spirit came its inevitable decline. His blows became noticeably slower and less difficult to read; easily I could dodge the sloppy fists and grapple with the hands of the Gan.

"What's wrong! Has all of your spiral power run dry?"

A weak body was only the catalyst, a greater worrier could push past this weakness, but for a child to do what he has done today, I did not hold him to such standard. It was only the spark though, it was their mind that would be there true end, thought of ineptitude, fear, and distress followed the instant their body railed against their soul, such was the human form, and such was gift of The Fruit of Knowledge. Return to the earth child, Guff awaits us all ln the end, if this was your all, this life you led should fill you with pride.

My daughter had said something, far off and on the ground, I could barely here the girl and couldn't discern what she'd said.

I gripped the Gan's hands, felt the metal no longer supported by his spiral power give to my clutches, my fingers dug into the metal, and with a moment of whirring girders, I tore the Gan's arms clean from its chassis. Fluids and parts hung in the air for that moment, as I felt the rush of victory flow over me. I reveled in this end-heat of battle, I felt a surge in that instant akin to many times in my youth, vigor filled me once more, life in that instant flooded back into my old body, I knew I'd have to stifle it when this was all over, but I didn't care for that In this moment, not for the anti-spirals, not Spiral-nemesis, not of the tales that will surely be told, not of any torturous day or ill thing that has ever happened to me.

"I haven't had this much fun in a long time, boy."

The afterglow of combat, sweat and raw flesh, it was a different form of passion that existed here on the battlefield, an all-encompassing sense of camaraderie and brotherhood between even the deepest enemies. I stepped back, the cool air bracing and welcome, fresh and without any smoke from the burning city a mile below, Cathedral Terra was full tonight, and I was lulled by the faux moonlight. I basked in my victory a moment more, shut my eyes and paid no mind to the boy.

"Now, back into the dirt..!" The boy had stood, barely balancing on where his canopy once met his Gan's Chassis, a clenched hand to the sky holding a familiar, small device. Its singular button depressed and bloodied by his blistered digit.

My stomach grew a pit and did flips, how had he gotten the device, when had he taken it from my vaults, why hadn't I known of this? I could ask as many questions, postulate any myriad of answers, but it would not change the fact that the button had been pressed, and I could feel in the air the thing was already spinning up.

"For humanity's sake…" he could barely speak, blood spilt from his lips and grunts racked every word "…you must die." He didn't know what he did, didn't know what that machine would do. He thought it would kill us no doubt, thought it some bomb or something, a trigger yes, but what that device was, was the ON switch for one of Cathedral Terra's subsystems.

Specifically, it was the ON button for its Perceptual Teleportation drive.

Specifically, it activated a time travel routine.

I heard an explosion, felt my skull heat up, a small mushroom cloud must've erupted from it. My teeth clenched and my brain boiled in my skull.

Fifteen seconds was how long we had left in this point in time, as I thought of it, the pit and flips of my gut only intensified. I scrambled to drudge up any of my abandoned plot involving the device; I forced myself into a sort of meditative state to turn the seconds I had into what felt like minutes, any larger amount of much needed time to go over what had to change and what could be salvaged of my plot.

It was simple back then, go back in time and prevent third impact. Something I'd deemed easy to achieve, something I'd run thousands of scenarios on, most of which coming up with what I deemed positive outcomes. With my four general's at my aid and with operational Ganmen, I'd easily be able to do what needed to be done.

But my generals are dead, and any Ganman sent with us would be inoperable for the foreseeable future. What manpower I had where three children I doubt would ever aid me and a Beastman who's only real positive was an immortal body.

Eradicating NERV, the first step of the plan, had to be scrapped entirely, no usable manpower, no usable Ganman, it was no longer a feasible course of action.

That was the only thing I came up with in the fifteen seconds: that a major portion of my plan, that made the rest of it possible, had to be scrapped.

This'll be fun.

-End of Prologue.-


End file.
